Thousands march to demand Maltese premier resign after Panama Papers
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Valletta - Thousands of people took to the streets in Malta on Sunday, calling on the prime minister to resign in the wake of the Panama Papers data leak that implicated two senior members of government.
"Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has lost the moral authority to lead the country and should resign before more damage was done,"opposition leader Simon Busuttil told protestors who gathered in Valletta.
Malta's opposition party has called for a motion of no confidence for the Muscat's failure to sack Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and his chief of staff Keith Schembri, who were named in the Panama Papers affair.
The leak of 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which details how money was funnelled to shell companies in tax havens, has called into question the finances of numerous politicians, sports stars and celebrities from across 80 countries.
German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung first reported the existence of the 214,000 shell companies last Sunday, along with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and a number of other newspapers.
The ICIJ report named Mizzi and Schembri among the Mossack Fonseca clients.
- DPA
